July 5th 10 pm: Okay then, so, as you may have guessed by now, Newsday's Katie Strang (the only one getting the calls) has reported the Isles are out of the race and we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief or if you're a fan of one of the other teams in the running, you can keep biting your nails.
Certainly Jay Grossman, Kovy's agent will let the hockey world know who wins the great Free Agent prize when he is ready and Ilya has signed on a dotted line somewhere.
July 5th, Monday, 11:52 am: Newsday's Katie Strang tweets out a text message she received from Garth Snow stating that there is nothing new to report. Immediately this brings to mind an old SNL skit from way, way back. "and in other news, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead."
However within the same blog entry for today, Ms. Strang indicates that Kovalchuk's agent, Jay Grossman is looking to make a decision on his future sometime today.
Don't you wish you saved some of those fireworks. You may need them later.
**Sun 6pm: Kovalchuk says no to the LA Kings. And I'm starting to get really nervous. If Dean Lombardi couldn't give him what he wanted, and the Thrashers offered him 12 years and $101 million or $70 million for 7 years.... He is running out of options here and Charles Wang may be just the millionaire to play into his hands. ughhh!!
If he turned down First, Happy Fourth of July all. Especially those in who have served their country to ensure our freedoms. Thank you.
Next, there is nothing left to say about Friday night's Kovi-thon that set the hockey world on it's head. Absolutely - NOTHING. The only thing there is to say about it is that GaI'm rth Snow is quoted by Katie Strang of Newsday as saying he would not talk about it.
There you have it.
So while every team who has the cap space to accept the big fish of this year's free agency pool waits for Ilya to make his decision as to whose money he will laugh all the way to the bank with, I have to say; I'm getting more annoyed.
It is my very, VERY personal opinion that no player should be given a 10 year contract in this NHL. It is too risky and benefits only the player and not the league and not even the fanbase. So should that be the type of contract he signs his name to, I would prefer it not be with the Islanders. The team is already paying it's dues for extended contracts that didn't work out quite as expected. So, no matter how much fans may drool over the player before the contract is signed, history dictates that at some point they will become disgruntled with him leaving the team holding the bag with the dollar signs on it.
I understand extended contracts are used to limit cap hits while enticing certain high level players to a location. I would just love to see contracts have a limit as well. Say six years or a maximum of seven. A decade is just too long.
In other news, Islanders prospect mini-camp begins tomorrow with many of the drafted prospects showing up to get a taste of Long Island. There is also a very large number of Long Island natives that have been invited this season.
While it is highly unlikely for a significant number of them to actually make it to training camp in September, perhaps they have been invited to better help the prospects become familiar with Long Island and all that it has to offer. What better way than to invite the boys who grew up here tell those from far away all about what to expect.
As I said, here's something a little different over
at my blogspot. Are the NY Islanders a rehab center for badboy hockey players?
It's a holiday weekend. Enjoy it. I'm going to try to.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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